The field of this invention relates to a carousel machine and more particularly to a carousel machine for assisting operators to package cable into a box.
Factories and industrial places of business are significantly becoming safer places for workers. As science and knowledge progress, it becomes known that certain repetitive motions by a human worker may cause a chronic injury and may eventually disable the worker. As such, workers must limit the particular activity during the day or the job needs to be changed in a fashion to make the operation more ergonomically friendly by reducing or eliminating the harmful motion.
Cable is a particularly difficult material to handle. In this application, xe2x80x9ccablexe2x80x9d is used in a generic sense and can range from thin wire to sheathed insulated wire, stiff rope, or wire bundles, metallic ribbon strips, flexible tubing or even elongated flexible non-circular shaped material such as flexible plastic molding trim. Cable may be bundled in large diameter windings with many coils that need to be continuously controlled to prevent the cable from undesirably uncoiling which can at the very least undesirably take up space and make a mess. On many occasions, when large bulk shipments of coil are brought in, the cable needs to be rewound and repackaged in smaller amounts.
The repackaging of cable has presently been manually intensive with human workers manually coiling the cable into a box or other container. This manual operation requires a repetitive circular motion of the worker""s arm where it connects to the shoulder. Excessive repetitive circular motion of this nature may possibly cause a strain on the shoulder. Thus it is preferred to make this operation more ergonomically friendly by eliminating this circular motion in such a cable re-packaging operation.
What is needed is a rotating platform that can rotate the container and hold it in place while the cable is fed into the container.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a rotatable carousel device for use in controlling the position of a container includes a carousel platform mounted on a central rotatable spindle. A plurality of suction cups extend through said carousel platform and are operably connectable to a vacuum source through the rotatable spindle. Preferably, the spindle has a central passage extending from an upper end to a side outlet. A bushing surrounds the spindle about the side outlet and forms an annular chamber between the bushing and spindle.
The bushing also has a side passage therethrough that is in communication with the annular chamber. The side passage is operably connectable to the vacuum source. A bearing and seal assembly is located at each end of the bushing to rotatably mount the bushing with respect to the spindle and to provide an air tight seal of the annular chamber with respect to the ambient exterior about the bushing.
The bushing is preferably press fitted within an outer fixed housing. The outer fixed housing also has a side aperture aligned with the side passage in the bushing and is operably connectable to the vacuum source. The drive spindle preferably has a sleeve section about the side outlet which rotates with the drive spindle. The sleeve is spaced from the bushing to form the annular chamber. The annular chamber is interposed axially between the two axially spaced seal and bearing assemblies.
It is desirable that a manifold is mounted on the upper end of the spindle and beneath the carousel platform. The manifold has a respective passage in communication with a respective suction cup. The suction cups are mounted on pedestals that also mount onto the carousal platform. It is also preferred that air filters are mounted in line near the manifold to prevent dirt particles from passing through the drive spindle.
A drive motor operably connects to a lower end of the drive spindle for controllably rotating the drive spindle and carousel.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method of repackaging cable into a container, for example a box, includes the steps of retaining a container on a rotatable carousel in proximity to its axial center. The carousel and container are rotated and cable is simultaneously wound into the container as it rotates to form coils of cable within the container.
Preferably, the container is retained in place on the carousel through a vacuum supply exerted onto the bottom of the box through the carousel. It is preferable that the center of the container is coaligned with the axis of rotation of the carousel. The vacuum is passed through the drive spindle that preferably rotates the carousel and through a rotational vacuum joint to a vacuum source. The drive spindle is controllably rotated via a motor operably connected in proximity to a bottom end of the drive spindle.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a rotatable vacuum connection has a drive spindle that has a central passage extending from a distal end and a side outlet extending from the central passage to the side wall of the drive spindle. A bushing surrounds the spindle about the side outlet and forms an annular chamber between the bushing and spindle. The bushing has a side passage therethrough that is in communication with the annular chamber. The side passage is operably connectable to the vacuum source. A bearing and seal assembly is located at each end of the bushing to rotatably mount the bushing to the spindle and to provide an air tight seal of the annular chamber with respect to the ambient exterior about the bushing. The bushing is press fitted within an outer fixed housing that also has a side aperture aligned with the side passage in the bushing and is operably connectable to a vacuum source. The drive spindle has a sleeve about the side outlet and is spaced from the bushing to form the annular chamber.